Wednesday, 29 August 2012

Hansik is back!

Sorry about missing yesterday but today we are back at school. The storm was not very bad. We were very happy to get a day off school and spent most of the time playing and sleeping. Everyone is tired today. There is another typhoon coming tomorrow but they don’t think it will be very bad.

We are happy that everyone likes these posts. Korean food is very delicious and we hope that more people in the world will try it. Today’s lunch was good. Wednesday is a special lunch day. They serve special things like rice porridge or curry.

Today we had fried rice with dried seaweed on top (볶음밥 with 김, bokkeumbap with kim),
soybean paste stew with green pumpkin, mushrooms, and potatoes in it (된장 찌개, doenjang
jjigae), radish kimchi (깍두기, kkakdugi), corn and cheese casserole, and grapes.

People had a question about breakfast in Korea. We usually eat the same food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. This is rice, soup, kimchi and other small things like tofu, egg, ham, or beans. Sometimes we eat cereal or breads.

Thank you for reading. We like seeing your comments and answering your questions about
Korea!

Teacher’s Note: To answer some of the other questions from the last post I will jump in. The dumplings in the back of the picture are called kimchi mandu. Mandu (민두) is the Korean word for dumpling. I teach just English (writing) but other native English teachers at my school teach science, math, social studies, and reading. It is a wonderful opportunity!

There is a lot of access to junk and western food here. McDonalds, Burger King, Papa John’s, Domino’s, and Baskin Robbins (to name a few) all have stores here and are very popular. But, from what I’ve seen and what students have told me, these are eaten much less regularly than in the US. Koreans still place a big emphasis on family, so meals are often home cooked or still Korean. Other things are seen as a treat. Obviously, this is not the case in all Korean families but seems to be more common.

There are a lot of options for delivery and take away here. Korea is very convenient. When you order from Korean restaurants they bring everything in glass and metal. Once you are done eating you place it outside your door and the restaurant will come and pick it back up. Besides Korean food, you can order delivery from just about anywhere, even McDonalds! Fried chicken, often tossed in a spicy sauce and incredibly common in Korea, and pizza are popular choices.

When asked my students all said they like western food sometimes but that they prefer Korean!

Very excited to read your posts! I'm entering my second semester of college and intend to teach English after I graduate. Fascinating to see a tiny aspect of what to expect from the job (one of the least important aspects, but still very interesting). Love Korean food, too, so it's nice to see familiar things.

Glad to read you got through the typhoon. I read from other bloggers that it didn't hit as hard as was expected, especially in the greater Seoul area.

That seems like a lot of cooking if similar meals are eaten at breakfast and dinner! How is the cooking typically done there- is it shared between both parents or mostly just the female? Are the families multi-generational (grandparents in the home) with the cooking shared that way?

Hello! I am also glad to hear it was not too bad. :) Love today's post as well! Korean food has to be one of my favorite foods to eat. I eat it about once a week out here in Los Angeles. It is wonderful! I love the silver chopsticks. Is there any particular reason for silver chopsticks. I just thought it was because it is the "silverware" for Korea, but I was recently told something that sounds like an urban legend. Thanks again! <3 Elle

Thank you for the explanation about the food choices and how the diets vary among Americans and Koreans. Always fun to see other meals around the world and what Western foods they have access to and if they eat it as much as we do.

Good to know everyone is safe and back in school! :)Thanks for answering the questions..that was really sweet of you guys. It is nice to learn more about a culture straight from a person living there! I am wondering how the kids feel about being in an immersion school and studying subjects in two different languages. When I grew up in India, we had some subjects like Geography and History in Hindi until 4th grade and then we switched to English full time 5th grade onwards. The first couple of semesters were tough because we were translating geographical terms we knew from Hindi to English! :)

I love today's post! I like the idea of fried rice with seaweed and kimchi :)

Thank you very much for answering my question regarding junk food, I'm so pleased to hear that most families place their emphasis on family meals and eating traditional foods. It's nice to find somewhere where McDonalds doesn't seem to rule!

I'm loving your blog, it is one of the most interesting to me during Veg's holidays.